“Religion today” 2008-12-03: In short, Muslims in Egypt are regularly rioting over Christians practicing their own religion, even in private. While this unfortunately makes sense in terms of Islam—the Christians have dared to complain, and they are a convenient target for Muslim frustration—I am baffled that the United States is still giving money to a country where this sort of thing happens.

“Sectarian tensions simmer over a pig in Cotabato City”: Yet another instance of Muslims, in this case in the Philippines, going crazy over something Christians are doing: selling pork publicly, despite no one seems to be advocating that Muslims buy or eat it. Also worrying is the setting up of a special Muslim autonomous region in the Philippines and attempts to expand it, allegedly to help bring peace to a country suffering from a civil war. Note that this sort of thing has not helped Israel.

A follower of the Falun Gong religious group and a failed asylum seeker did not have his human rights breached when Russian authorities deported him to China, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday.

Considering that China is no friend of human freedom or Falun Gong, the hypocrisy of this decision should be obvious to even the most dim-witted reader.

“Can menorah builds on old tradition”: This is beautiful: a creative way to promote the celebration of Ḥanukkah coupled with the practice of ṣedhaqah (denotatively “charity”, connotatively “justice, righteousness”).